Page 27 of The Succubi's Choice

The lights flicker, more pronounced than before, and Gabriel cranes his neck up before glancing at her. “Did you do that?”

“I totally can’t control electricity,” she replies dryly, and sees the corresponding wrinkle of the nose from Jacqueline, whose earmuffs are obviously not as good as Miri originally thought.

“I’m just asking cause —"

And the lights snap off, plunging them into darkness.

Jacqueline yelps, and Miri sets down her gun carefully, feeling around for the edge of the plastic shooting table.

After a split second, Gabriel holds up his phone as a light, bathing the entire area in a blue glow. “You guys alright?”

Jacqueline digs in her purse, pulling out her phone as well, taking off her earmuffs. “What even happened?”

“Must be a summer blackout, too many people with AC,” Miri says, wishing she brought her own phone, but the idea of being tracked doesn’t sit well even then. “It’s probably no big deal.”

“Nah, we have a separate generator.” Gabriel slips off his earmuffs, leaving them hanging around his neck like a snake. He gives a significant glance to Miri, one that she doesn’t know how to interpret or feel about. “Let’s pack this up, I’ll call my uncle when we —"

The lights flash on, blinding her, and —

Down range, next to the paper targets fluttering in some insane breeze, stands Thomas.

Or, rather, Not-Thomas. His eyes glow red, like some sort of bad science fiction movie effect, like some sort of machine. Robot.

Miri feels herself flinching back, as if she is viewing herself from the outside.

Part of her hears Jacqueline yelp in surprise, hears Gabriel’s quick intake of breath, but the rest of her is stopped cold. Like the blood in her veins has stopped moving, leaving her skin to turn to the temperature of the air.

He takes a step towards her, his eyes locked with hers, his face unreadable.

And yet, she can’t find the will to move. To force her legs to function, run for the door, escape somehow. Like the very sight of him has the power to freeze her, freeze all of her.

For all she knows, it might.

Not breathing, out of the corner of her eye she sees Gabriel visibly gather himself, then slam a new magazine of bullets into his gun and train it down range.

Not-Thomas’s red eyes flicker to him, then back at Miri, as if the pistol pointed directly at him isn’t worth much of his notice.

“Gabe, don’t.” Miri forces out, her hands starting to shake. “Put it down.”

She doesn’t want Gabriel drawing the Archdemon’s ire.

“Who are you and what are you doing here?” Gabriel snaps out, his stance unmoving.

Jacqueline makes an aborted noise, something between a squeak and a gasp, and the muscle in Gabriel’s shoulder tightens.

Again, the bare flicker of a glance, and then —

Too sudden, too close, he’s right in front of Miri, arm’s distance. She could reach out and tap him right on the chest.

He regards her, not necessarily with malice, but more with a dismissive curiosity. “Succubi,” he says, and though it’s the same voice as Thomas’s, the same vocal cords, the timber echoes different. Wrong.

In a quick moment, Gabriel snaps the gun over. “Miri, get back.”

The demon raises an eyebrow with amusement. Miri jerks back, as if she could move fast enough.

“Gabe, Jacqueline,” she starts, slow, not taking her eyes off the demon. Archdemon. Whatever. “Go wait for me outside, I’ll be there in a few.”

The demon’s lips quirk.

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